DIASPORA came out in 2010 and is based on the FATE v.3 rule set (before FATE Core). [If someone had the oldest printing of the book or .pdf, there is an errata file from vsca.ca] Fate itself is quite a departure from the number/rolling RPG systems of the past, but by careful description of elements which matter to a hard science-fiction story, DIASPORA offers a satisfying framework. Like all FATE-derived games, it dispenses with the uninteresting minutiae of a game.

The rules are well-organized, but those unfamiliar with FATE may want to pick up the FATE Core System because there the rules were EXTREMELY well-organized with side-bar reminders and page-number references throughout, to help people understand the new FATE concepts. Then you can work back to the slightly older version of DIASPORA.

Diaspora incorporates rules to handle Social interactions and Platoon-level engagements (*cough* ALIENS *cough*) as mini-games within the overall structure. The star-systems are generated in a "cluster" system postulating that it is more difficult to get to the next cluster of stars than to travel between the home-cluster. Obviously this will not work with the warp-anywhere fiction settings like Star Wars.

The artwork is a little sparse, though, and could have been integrated to be relevant to the rules examples.

This game is worth purchasing for the social combat system alone. I've never seen a system for resolving social situations that is this imaginative, clearly explained, and fun to play. This is to say nothing of the rest of the book, which would be well worth the price of purchase even without the innovative social combat system. Clear writing, an interesting setting that honors its roots in old-school science fiction gaming, wonderful mechanics for player participation in world creation, and good structure and layout make this an all-around excellent book, despite a few puzzling typos and art that some might view as out-of-place.

Picked this up at the recommendation of a friend of a friend and have been extremely happy with the purchase. The FATE system is beautifully flexible and the mini-games added in Diaspora really round out the storytelling possibilities.

My original hope was just to find something different from 4e but Diaspora has proven to be much more than that. Hell, the cluster and character creation portions alone are worth the price of admission!

Highly recommended for anyone looking for a relatively free-form system that focuses on storytelling over rules minutiae.

Diaspora was written by a bunch of people who love Traveller, but also love indie games where players share narrative control with the gamemaster. So they took Fate, the game system that Spirit of the Century and the Dresden Files RPG are built on, and they wrote a hard science fiction game that's very Traveller-like, but with all of the player possibilities they love about other games intact.

The book is dense — 270 pages. That seems like a lot, for a setting without a setting; unlike Traveller, where nearly every square centimeter of the galaxy has been mapped, planned out, and described in some sourcebook or another, you build your universe from scratch. It's easy enough to do, with Fate's aspect system. Everything from planets to alien races to spaceships to weapons can be described with aspects. The high page count is because the authors went to the trouble of giving you ladders and suggestions on each and every possible element, so that everything fits together smoothly and keeps the hard science feel. If you're well-verse in Fate you might find it unnecessary, but it's helpful. If you're not familiar with Fate, the high page count and amount of information provided may seem incredibly daunting.

Disapora gets me excited. You can recreate the Traveller universe with this, sure, but you could build almost any science fiction universe from it. It's simply a matter of how far you want to bend the definition of "hard science". You could do Battlestar Galactica with it, Serenity, even Star Trek or Star Wars if you really want to allow some hand-waving pseudo-science and fantasy into the game. It deserves to be this generation's Traveller. If only hard science fiction were a more popular genre.